IT admin faces five years for network extortion

Savtyrev faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000

An IT administrator faces up to five years in prison after he tried to extort money from his former employers by threatening to crash the company's servers.

Viktor Savtyrev, 29, pleaded guilty to extortion, after threatening to enlist eastern European hackers to launch attacks against his former employer, New York investment firm Third Avenue Management.

"My comrades for a small fee are able to help me out with bridging the firewall security and carry out data destruction and virus outbreak," Savtyrev wrote in an email to the company, according to the complaint.

"I located the names and email addresses of the editors of The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Daily News and all of them should be very interested in getting an article about a mutual fund (losing) data because some 'Crazy Russian' (this is the name of the article which I wrote last night) was fired after five years of loyal service."

Savtyrev was laid off in November, but was reportedly upset at the parsimonious nature of his severance package. He told his employers that he wanted more money, better medical coverage and "excellent references" or he would take action.

However, Savtyrev made a serious mistake in putting his demands down in an email to directors, who promptly handed it over to the FBI. He was arrested within days, and now faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 (£172,000).

His lawyer has reportedly said that Savtyrev panicked after being laid off and faced having to support two children with no income.